How To Stay Fit And Healthy When You Have An Injury
When you’re used to exercising regularly, nothing is more frustrating than being injured. You can’t take your usual hiking trails, certain workout positions hurt, and you can forget about aerobics. It can start to feel like you’ll lose your mind if you don’t heal soon.
Fortunately, you can still stay fit and healthy while you recover. You just need a new workout routine that works for your new, temporary lifestyle.
Here are a few ways you can keep your workout routine going strong even when you don’t feel your strongest.
Talk to your doctor about the best workouts for your injury
A workout routine that’s great for people with a sports-related knee injury won’t benefit you the same way if you’re recovering from a heart attack. For instance, if you were recently diagnosed with heart disease, which can be treated with cardiac catheterization, your doctor might recommend cycling, rowing, walking, or water aerobics.
Talk to your medical professionals, such as your PCP or your physical therapist, to get an idea of the types of workouts that can best improve your health. Your physical therapist can help customize certain exercises to meet your needs.
Don’t be afraid to start out as a beginner.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you’ve been exercising like a pro and now you’ve been set back by a serious injury. It’s important to take good care of your body and not to overdo it in an effort to get back to your old routine again.
Working out as a beginner means interspersing slow running and walking and gradually reducing your walking breaks as weeks go by. Stop if your injury starts to hurt to avoid doing further damage to your body.
If needed, take an over-the-counter pain reliever to reduce inflammation and pain. Although drug discovery is a multi-billion dollar industry, we’re still a little ways away from finding stronger pain relievers that don’t have a risk of addiction.
Look for low-impact exercises.
You don’t need a high-impact workout routine to make a big impact on your health. Low-impact exercises can be just as effective and might even leave you sweating buckets.
In fact, many of the top 10 favorite sports in the U.S. are low-impact sports like golf and martial arts.
Swimming is a great low-impact cardio workout, but you might not be able to swim if you have a cast or need to bandage your injury. Other great low-impact workouts include:
- Rowing
- Cycling
- Walking
- Strength training
- Kayaking
- Tai chi
- Water aerobics
- Yoga
It’s all too easy to get stir-crazy when you’ve suffered an injury. Up to 22% of slip/fall incidents resulted in 31 days away from work, let alone exercise.
But the good news is that there are still plenty of ways you can get your exercise in so you can burn off some of that stagnant energy. By following the tips above, you can keep yourself active and healthy while you recover so that when you’re finally healed, it won’t be hard to get back into the game.
